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244 CHAPTER XIX.

DESCRIBES AN IMPORTANT EVENT IN THE PIRATE CITY.

exclaimed the elder chaouse, after Omar and Hassan had left, "you have put the bowstring round our necks as well as your own."

"True," answered Baba, with a bland smile, "and if we would not have it drawn tight, we must e'en obey the commands of Omar the Dey."

"I suppose we must," returned the chaouse gloomily; "but it is hard enough to be compelled to spend our days in strangling, thrashing, burning, beheading, flaying, and tormenting other men, without the addition of having our own necks put in jeopardy."

The injustice attaching to themselves and their office seemed to weigh heavily for some time on the minds of both the executioners, notwithstanding the sallies and remonstrances of Hadji Baba, but before reaching the palace they had gone through the not difficult process—to a Turk—of setting the whole matter down to the decrees of Fate, and washing their hands of all guilt.